Retiring Teacher Strove For Excellence Present And Former Students Recall Inspiration She Spread

May 25, 1986|By Calvin Carter, Staff Writer

Ruby Jackson has been called a lot of names in the 25 years she has spent as a fifth-grade teacher and media specialist at Deerfield Park Elementary School.

But if most of her present and former students had their way, she would be called mom.

Jackson, 60, who is retiring next month, now concentrates on instilling her strong educational principles in the children -- and in some cases grandchildren -- of former students.

``She helped me a lot,`` said Jessie Askins, a student at Deerfield Park when the school -- and Ruby Jackson`s legacy -- began in 1959. ``I was very, very shy and she tried to get me to open up and express myself more. She`s like a mother to me and I`ll definitely miss her.``

Jackson explains her educational philosophy this way: ``I`m a firm believer that children live up to your expectations and if you expect much of them, they`ll perform.``

The memories of former students, co-workers and friends from the Deerfield Beach community will be recalled at a retirement banquet scheduled for 7 p.m. June 14 at the Golden Spike in Fort Lauderdale.

And the memories are plentiful.

Not to have a Ruby Jackson story would be unusual for anyone who has worked in or attended Deerfield Park, said Carl Nixon, a teacher and Deerfield Beach commissioner.

``Whenever I run into former students, they always ask, `Is Mrs. Jackson still there?` `` he said. ``We`re losing a valuable person -- not only to Deerfield Park, but the Broward County educational system as a whole.``

Jackson, who became the school`s media specialist (education lingo for librarian) in 1966, has approached the job with the same passion that characterized her work in the classroom.

``I love to read,`` she said. ``I still remember the first book my father brought me. It was Heidi.``

Her father, who worked as a locomotive fireman for the Florida East Coast Railway, was taught to read by her mother, Jackson said. ``He had a third- or fourth-grade education, but he sent six kids to college. He said that was all he really worked for,`` she said.

Jackson holds a bachelor`s degree in home economics from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a second bachelor`s in elementary education from Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach near her hometown of New Smyrna Beach, a master`s degree from Florida Atlantic University, and completed post-graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The academic perseverance has paid off in dividends to the Deerfield Park family.

One library program, called Drop Everything and Read, allows faculty, students and administrative personnel to stop at 1:30 every afternoon to read for half an hour.

For her dedication, Jackson`s peers have named her Deerfield Park`s Teacher of the Year.

Jackson said she may return next year as a tutor. But not until she and husband Clifford, a retired career educator, have finished a train trip through the midwestern United States and Canada.

Until then, Jackson can be found in her small, sparsely decorated office in the media center. Her desk, cluttered with instructional materials and books, also bears a sign that states her teaching philosophy: ``Children are the world`s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.``

Jackson has sometimes forced that philosophy on the children themselves, said Ruth Giles, a fifth-grade teacher at Deerfield Park who also helped open the school.

``There was one student in special education who ran away,`` Giles said. ``We all thought he was mentally retarded, but when Jackson got hold of him she said, `When I get through with you, you`ll never run away again.` Now he`s an ``A`` student in a private school. She truly believes in excellence.``